The UMass-Lowell Chiefs defeated the Northeastern Huskies 6-5 with an Ian
Hebert goal in overtime.  Bob Hoffman has already given some comments and
Mike Machnik has posted a partial report (Hey Mike. I didn't see you.  Well,
next time.  BTW, the Dominos pizza contest is for the group that makes the
most noise.  My son has been blasting my eardrums since this promotion began
all to no avail.  Also, the crowd at the UNH game last week was even larger.)
 
Onwards...
 
Lineups
 
Henry - Donovan - Murray
Bullock - Hebert - Bazin
Sbrocca - Daw - Concannon
Golden - Brown - Mahoney
 
Campbell- Botto
Mayes - Angus
Kriss - Barozini
 
(Travis Tucker out injured)
 
Opening lineup for NU - O'Connor, Taylor, and Aubbe up front.  McGillis and
Bouchard on D.  Reynolds in the net.  I apologize in advance for butchering
some of the Northeastern names.  I've left my reference materials home.
 
First period
------------
 
UMass-Lowell came out and totally dominated the first period, jumping to a 3-0
lead, with a 19-8 shot advantage.  Greg Bullock, the nation's leading freshman
scorer, converted a rebound of a Norm Bazin up-close shot less than a minute
into the game.  Ian Hebert also collected an assist.
 
UML goalie Roloson made a good save at about the
4 minute mark on a hard shot from
Huskies defenseman Klynn, who had moved down from the point.  My son observed
that Klynn wears mismatched Mega skates.  One is blue and the other white.
I'm not sure if this is a deliberate fashion statement, or was a last minute
problem with a skate, but you can't slip anything past those nine-year olds.
 
At a little past the six minute mark Mike Murray forced an NU penalty from
behind the Northeastern net.  Jason Kelly, 2 minutes, holding.
 
Partway through the power play, though, Rollie had to make a good save when
Northeastern generated a 3 on 2 while shorthanded.  However, with the powerplay
almost over, seconds after John Mahoney missed a good opportunity while the
Chiefs swarmed the net, Christian Sbrocca scored on a wide open weak-side post.
Bazin and Daw assisted.  BTW, Sbrocca had been replaced by Ian Hebert on the
number 1 power play unit (consisting of Shane Henry on one point, Bullock at
left wing, Murray at right wing, now Hebert at center, and a defenseman,
typically Kerry Angus, at the other point.).
 
At less than the 10 minute mark, Tom Arland? of NU picked up a holding penalty.
At the beginning, the Chiefs weren't getting much out of the power play until
with about 30 seconds left on the man advantage Christian Sbrocca had an
opportunity from the slot, but tried unsuccessfully to set someone up in front.
 
With 8:05 left in the period Aaron Kriss got a 2 minute interference penalty,
but Northeastern did not score. With 5:56 left, Jeff Daw forced Mark Webb of
NU to hook him just as Daw was about to score on a pass from Shane Henry.  It
was definitely a penalty a coach wants a kid to take.  The penalties continued
as Neil Donovan got an interference penalty with 5:15 left and then Botto got
another 2 with 3:39 left as he pushed a guy who wacked Roloson.  Two other
players went out on matching penalties.  The Chiefs killed the 25 seconds of
5-on-3 and had perfect penalty killing the rest of the two minutes, even
getting an excellent scoring opportunity from Hebert (I think) when Rollie
flipped the puck out of the zone to Hebert who had gotten clear at the far
blue line.  Some Huskie got back to harrass Hebert just as he got the shot off
and that hustle may have saved NU a goal.
 
Then with just 27 (or 23, I'm not sure of my handwriting) seconds left, McNair
of NU got a 2 minute slashing penalty.  On the power play, Hebert got it out of
the right corner to Shane Henry at the point, "Hank" fed it over to Kerry
Angus at the left point and ANgus slapped it home.
 
All in all, a terrific period for the Chiefs.  Note that 2 of the 3 goals
were on the power play.  Going into LAST weekend (before the UNH games) the
Chiefs were +14 in total special teams play.  (That is, they'd scored 14 more
goals on their power plays than they'd given up on opponent's man advantage
situations.)
 
Second Period
------------
 
The Chiefs spent a ton of time in the penalty box this period (and this was
without Penalty Minute Champ Travis Tucker who was out of the lineup).
Sbrocca got interference at 1:45, and did a deja vu performance at 5:11.
The Chiefs killed both penalties.  But with Barozino in for roughing at 6:41
Northeastern finally cashed in.  Having killed the 30 second 5-on-3, the
Chiefs were within 4 seconds of killing the entire penalty when Aube scored
from Wedd and Shields.  Roloson was down and out and had no chance.
 
Then at a little past the 10 minute mark, it appeared that Rollie had the
puck tied up, got no whistle and Aubbe scored again.  I missed the assists.
Sorry.
 
Then after Northeastern missed a great opportunity at about the 12:30 mark,
Ed Campbell scored his first goal as a Chief on a slapshot from the left
point to the upper right corner of the net.  It was a disputed goal, based
on the way it bounded out to the right side of the net.  I honestly didn't
think it had gone in, but couldn't figure out how it could have gotten to that
side without hitting the the crossbar and I definitely didn't hear the
clink of the crossbar.  Since the goal judge seemed quite certain and one of
the refs had it going in, it was ruled a goal.  Bazin and Bullock were credited
with assists.
 
The Chiefs had a close call with 4:40 left in the period as the puck lay in the
crease behind Roloson, but a defenseman came to the rescue.  With 3:33, NU's
Kelly got 2 minutes for slashing.  Then, while shorthanded, Northeastern goalie
Reynolds rushed to the bench because of what he thought was a delayed penalty
on Lowell.  The bench rushed him back to the crease since it was a delayed
offsides, not a penalty, but with the puck dumped to UML's defensive zone, they
could not take advantage of the temporarily open net.  After the Chiefs didn't
get much out of the 2 minute advantage, they promptly (with 1:27 left) went
down a man when Bullock got two minutes for roughing.
 
Northeastern finished the period with 14 shots to UMass-Lowell's 4.
 
Third Period
------------
 
Rollie made a terrific (and somewhat lucky) save just as the penalty expired.
At about the 2:30 mark, the Chiefs just missed tipping the puck into an open
net.  Then at 3:53 Northeastern narrowed the score to 4-3, as they scored on
a delayed penalty, although the goalie had *not* yet gone to the net, perhaps
doublechecking after nearly getting burnt earlier.  I didn't hear who was
credited with the goal because someone was talking to me when it got announced.
The World's Worst Journalist must again apologize.
 
At 6:14 the Huskie's Kelly was going off for roughing, when John Mahoney
stupidly took a macho, hitting after the whistle penalty negating an upcoming
power play.  The strength of Lowell's power play, and the closeness of the
game, made this seem like an especially unfortunate display of testosterone.
 
At 7:36 Neil Donovan got an interference penalty, but NU did not score.
 
Then, with about six and a half minutes left the Chiefs had the puck right at
the doorstep but couldn't put it in, and next thing you know the Huskies had
a 2-on-1 forcing Roloson to make an exceptional save.
 
With about three minutes left Northeastern had chances out in front, but
couldn't capitalize and it seemed as if UMass-Lowell would squeak out a
nail-biting win.  But with 2:10 left Jason Long scored from McGillis to tie it
up.  Disappointed Chiefs fans then turned jubilant as Norm Bazin got what
appeared to be the game winner with just 1:35 left as he was sent in all alone,
with Bullock and Botto assisting.  But Northeastern would not quit and came
back to tie it 5-5 with 54 seconds left, after pulling their goalie almost
immediately after Bazin's goal.  The tying goal was by O'Connor from Kayle
and McGillis.a The puck was coming around the boards to the right point.  I
was sure that Shane Henry was going to beat the Northeastern defenseman (either
Kayle or McGillis, I'm assuming McGillis) to the puck and at least get the puck
out but McGillis got to the puck first, put a shot on net and O'Connor tipped
it in from the weak side post.  Northeastern outshot UML 12-8 in the period.
 
Overtime
--------
 
And an action-filled overtime it was!  Lowell's Mike Murray twice came down
the right side and tried to use his strength to lean in on the defenseman.
There were chances, but the puck never went in.
 
Then with about a minute left in OT, Northeastern got a 2 (and perhaps 3)-on-1
but couldn't capitalize.
 
Just as it appeared that we'd get a kissing-your-sister tie, Ian Hebert got
the game winner with 23 seconds left in overtime from Bullock and Bazin.  The
assists were announced in that order, leading me to believe that they credited
Bullock with the "primary" assist, but I'm quite sure it was Bullock to Bazin
to Hebert for the great win.
 
This game had to be a terrific disappointment for a Huskie squad that never
gave up.  But it was a great win going into a Sunday afternoon game at Alfond.
 
Here's a personal request.  If you're actually reading this far into the game
report and you'd like to see me continue posting them for UMass-Lowell games,
please send me private Email, so I'll know that the non-trivial time this
takes is worthwhile (or I'll know that it isn't worthwhile, which would be
just as useful).  Constructive criticism will also be appreciated.
 
BTW, this game was on NESN, and had to be a great advertisement for college
hockey.
 
*****************************************************        ,-******-,
* Dave Hendrickson "Robo" [log in to unmask] *     *'     ##     '*
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* GO UMASS-LOWELL!!!    Go Maine!!           Go BU! * *      |  |___)  |     *
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* not Hewlett-Packard's.                            *     *,     ##     ,*
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